‘War on terror – one of main ideas of European culture’

Smoke rises from the interior of a destroyed cellar mosque as firefighters search the remains of the building after an arson attack on December 25, 2014 in Eskilstuna, central Sweden. (AFP Photo) / AFP

Since the 9/11 terror attacks there is a bias in European culture, which views the Muslim world as an enemy that it has to keep fighting - legitimizing Islamophobia, Swedish professor Adrian Groglopo told RT.

Sweden receives more asylum seekers per capita than any other
European country, and the issue of immigration is an especially
hot topic there. Amid the largest influx of immigrants, the
anti-immigrant far-right Sweden Democrats party emerged in third
place in September 2014 general parliamentary election.

Winning votes from center right and center left politicians, the
party intends to reduce the number of asylum seekers by 90
percent. Some of the anti-immigrant supporters have turned to
violence.

An arsonist set a mosque ablaze in southeastern Sweden on
Christmas Day. The attack on a Muslim place of worship left five
people injured. Just four days later, police suspected arson in
another Swedish mosque in the country's south. And on New Year’s
morning a mosque in one of Sweden’s largest cities was struck by
a Molotov cocktail and vandalized with racist graffiti.

Adrian Groglopo, Professor of Social Science at the University of
Gothenburg, told RT that several factors are behind those
attacks, including the politics of the war on terror and the
ideology of the European culture.

RT:Across the year at least a dozen attacks
on mosques in Sweden have been reported. Why is it
happening?

Adrian Groglopo: There are different reasons
regarding the attacks on Muslim communities. There are at least 3
or 4 factors that I would like to pinpoint here. One is the
ideology of the European culture. The idea [of] who belongs to
Europe mainly, what kind of body and religion are going to be the
dominant and lead the politics and economics in the whole Europe.
That is one of the basics.

The other one is 9/11 consequence, and its politics of the war on
terror. We tagged the main enemy, the Muslim world. And in
consequence political discourses were created in order to handle
Muslims. That is one of the main ideas in the European culture
which I already talked about which creates and legitimizes
Islamophobia.

RT:EU figures predict Muslims could make up
to 40% of Sweden's population within 15 years. One Swedish
Democrats leader said Swedes don't feel at home any more. Does
the general public actually feel threatened?

AG: General public is not like the Sweden
Democrats are describing it. One of the main problems in the
political field here in Sweden is that they are putting the
frames of the questions which we are going to be concerned about.
I would say that most of the people in Sweden are very friendly
and mainly very accepting of different communities, different
cultures, and different sort of people coming from different
parts of the world. And that has been shown very much in the
polls.

We have these Sweden Democrats that got 40 percent, but it is not
the whole population of Sweden. The question for me, and I think
for many other of my colleagues will not be of what happens if 40
percent of the population is Muslim. I would put it another way.
[What happens] if the Swedish population’s tolerance in which I
include all the different communities - especially the more
powerless - has been pushed too far regarding the political
terror done by few political parties against minorities.
Specifically I am talking about Swedish Democrats. How much more
are we going to tolerate and accept racial discrimination,
violence and flippant and weak attitude of the authorities?

RT:The popularity of the far-right Swedish
Democrats has increased recently. But there are also people on
the streets supporting Muslims. What will be the conclusion of
this conflict over the next two years?

AG: Sadly I’m expecting rise of the Sweden
Democrats because [there are] some problems within the political
Swedish field. When the right and the left are going together
against the Sweden Democrats they are putting the Sweden
Democrats in opposition which is a very, very important position
for them to have. I think that one of the main problems is that
the Social Democrats and the left party couldn’t get the support
of many social movements that are open and freely would like to
work together with these parties. We have real political problems
in Sweden. What is going on is a terror situation for minorities.
A terror political party, the Swedish Democrats has taken us a
hostage - the whole political field - and that is the main
problem.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.